A MidSummer Night’s Dream Now and Ten Years Ago

Photo from the Shakespeare in the Ruins website

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” says Lysander in A MidSummer Night’s Dream. We saw the romantic comedy during its current run at Shakespeare in the Ruins performed in its traditional venue at a former Trappist monastery just outside of Winnipeg.

And in the play ‘the course of true love does not run smooth’ with the characters running into all sorts of troubles before they are finally reunited with the person they are destined to love.

There’s plenty of humour in the 2024 Shakespeare in the Ruins production of A Mid Summer Night’s Dream –Photo by John Woods of the Winnipeg Free Press

The theme of the play is relatable. In real life the course of true love has its twists and turns and highs and lows and challenging times as well as mountain top experiences.

This summer’s rendition of the play by Shakespeare in the Ruins brings across the theme well and is entertaining.

But as I watched I couldn’t help but be reminded of a version of the play I saw a decade ago when the Shakespeare in the Ruins Company performed A MidSummer Night’s Dream in Central Park just a short distance from my downtown home.

I loved the way families who lived nearby came over to see the show

and neighbourhood children stopped their soccer games enthralled by the action.

I loved the way one little girl refused to remove herself from the stage so the actors ad-libbed and included her in the show.

I loved the way they used the iconic Waddell Fountain in Central Park as their stage and called up a kid from the audience to be The Wall in the play.

I loved that it was adapted to be a quick 85 minutes long, half as long as this year’s version but still with plenty of time to tell the story despite its many twists and turns.

Most of all I loved that it was a free show bringing a live theatre performance into Winnipeg’s most densely populated neighbourhood and making it accessible to everyone.

As I sat watching and laughing at this year’s Shakespeare in the Ruins production of A MidSummer Night’s Dream I kept wishing EVERYONE in Winnipeg could see it just like they could a decade ago when it was performed in Central Park.

This year’s performance was just fine but I have to say I LOVED the version they did in 2014!

Other posts………..

We Have A Long History With Shakespeare in the Ruins

It’s The Ides of March

Strolling Through Stratford

Flawed Like the Rest of Us

We saw The Mountain Top on Friday night at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. The entire play takes place in the hotel room where Dr. Martin Luther King stayed on the last night of his life.

Ray Strachan plays Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cherissa Richards, plays the motel maid Camae in The Mountaintop (Photo by Dylan Hewlett)

Most of the play is a long conversation between Martin Luther King and a hotel maid who delivers a cup of coffee to him. As the play progresses we find out she is actually an angel sent to prepare him for his death on the hotel balcony the following morning.

Statue of Dr. Martin Luther King in Austin Texas by sculptors Jeffrey Varilla and Anna Koh-Varilla

Since his death Dr. King has become a revered hero because of his inspirational leadership of the civil rights movement. Traveling through dozens of American cities on our road trip in January and February we noted how almost every one had a street or building or a piece of public art that honoured Dr. King.

Several times we have been in the United States on January 20th which is a national federal holiday in honour of Dr. King. We have noticed how it is celebrated with concerts, civic ceremonies, marches, parades, public speeches and fireworks.

Photo by Dylan Hewitt from the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre website

In The Mountain Top playwright Katori Hall presents theatre goers with a Martin Luther King who is not a lauded hero but very much a flawed human being.

He has smelly feet. He smokes cigarettes and has a taste for liquor. His socks have holes in them. He is paranoid that someone has bugged his room and is spying on him. He is portrayed as flirtatious. We see a man with a big ego but one not at all confident about his legacy.

While some have been critical of Katori Hall’s representation of Martin Luther King in The Mountain Top perhaps it is important for us to view him as a common man with all the foibles of any human being. Although he was without a doubt an extraordinary person, in many ways he was very ordinary person too– a flawed man.

Perhaps that fact will inspire us to remember that although we too are flawed human beings, we have the potential to make a real difference in the world just like Martin Luther King did.

Other posts………

Martin Luther King Day- 7 Ideas That Inspire

Martin Luther King Day

Building A Tipi For Story Telling